Driver questioned in Texas after body was found in his truck cab

A truck driver was taken into custody and questioned late Tuesday, Aug. 19, after Houston-area sheriff’s deputies found a woman’s body in his truck cab.

The driver was at a bar and allegedly told another patron there that he had a dead woman’s body in his sleeper, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

Law enforcement was called and when sheriff’s deputies arrived they arrested the driver, who was then exiting his rig. While being questioned, the driver reportedly admitted to driving from Houston to northeast Texas and back to Houston with the woman’s body in his cab.

On Thursday, the Chronicle reported that the driver could be cited for moving a dead body. A Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy told the newspaper that the driver told officers that she said she had been assaulted and asked him for help.

The trucker offered the woman – identified as Lisa Villegas – a soda and allowed her to get into his cab. Then she started going into convulsions and died of an apparent drug overdose.

The driver tried to give the woman CPR, but “he didn’t know how,” the deputy told the Chronicle.

The newspaper reported the driver “freaked out,” and didn’t know what to do. He decided to finish his route anyway because he needed money, and closed the cab’s curtain after her death around midnight Monday.

The driver returned to the Houston area around 9 p.m. Tuesday, not long before the body was found by sheriff’s deputies.

An autopsy reportedly revealed numerous needle mark’s on the woman’s body, but no signs of trauma.